The Florida case moved from an October medical emergency to August arrests after detectives gathered medical, digital and interview evidence.
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — When federal marshals arrested Gracie Jai Tellez and Robert Lee Ingram Jr. in Jacksonville on Aug. 7, nearly 10 months had passed since Hollywood police first responded to a 911 call involving the couple’s unresponsive 7-week-old daughter.
The long gap between the child’s death and the arrests reflects the way investigators built the case. Police did not point to a single eyewitness, confession or immediately identified suspect. Instead, according to arrest records and reports describing the investigation, detectives assembled medical findings, the infant’s recent health history, statements from both parents, cellphone data and observations about the home where the family lived. Tellez and Ingram were eventually charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child and child neglect. The allegations remain pending and have not been proven in court.
The warrants leading to the arrests were issued July 27, 2026. Authorities then sought the help of the U.S. Marshals Service in locating the parents. Federal officials said the two were found in Jacksonville and taken into custody Aug. 7. They were later returned to Broward County, moving an investigation that had unfolded largely outside public view into the criminal court system.
That investigation began Oct. 14, 2025, as an emergency call from a Hollywood residence. Tellez told authorities her baby was cold, pale and unresponsive. Officers performed CPR, and Hollywood Fire Rescue personnel transported the infant to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. Doctors quickly identified severe injuries, turning what began as an unresponsive-child call into a much more complicated inquiry.
Physicians found a traumatic brain injury and additional injuries involving the skull, eyes and spine, according to police records described by local news organizations. Specialists told investigators the pattern was consistent with nonaccidental head trauma. Reports citing the arrest affidavit said the child had skull fractures, bleeding in both eyes, detached retinas and hemorrhaging along the spine. She was declared brain dead on Oct. 18 and remained on life support until Oct. 22 in connection with organ donation.
After the child died, the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that the cause was complications of blunt head trauma and classified the manner of death as homicide. For detectives, that finding established that they were investigating a death believed to have resulted from another person’s actions. It did not establish who was responsible. A medical examiner’s homicide ruling is separate from the criminal court process and does not by itself determine guilt.
Detectives next had to determine what was known about the baby before the injuries were discovered. They learned that she had been examined by a pediatrician on Oct. 8, only six days before the emergency. Police said the pediatrician considered the infant healthy and had documented no significant injuries or major health concerns. The medical examiner later described her as well-developed and well-nourished. That information gave investigators a recent reference point as they tried to narrow the period in which the fatal trauma could have occurred.
Interviews with the parents were another early part of the inquiry. Tellez and Ingram said their daughter had been acting normally, had been fed and was placed in a bassinet before she was later found unresponsive, authorities said. Investigators reported that no event described by either parent explained the injuries documented at the hospital. They also said Ingram’s account changed on details involving feeding, sleeping and the number of times the baby had been moved in and out of the bassinet.
Police later conducted a reenactment at the residence, asking Ingram to walk them through what had happened. Investigators said that produced another version of the timeline. Detectives also looked at the size and arrangement of the home. According to reports describing the affidavit, police believed it was unlikely that an event causing the infant’s severe injuries would have occurred inside the residence without both adults becoming aware of something.
The investigation then moved into the digital record. The parents had said they sometimes used FaceTime between two phones as a makeshift baby monitor, allowing them to keep watch while the child was in another part of the home. Investigators obtained search warrants for the devices and examined their forensic history. Police said they did not find evidence that the phones were connected in the manner the parents described during the period they were examining.
Instead, the records showed hours of gaming and video activity. Ingram’s phone recorded Call of Duty use from about 5:12 a.m. until 8:39 a.m. on Oct. 14 and again from roughly 10:33 a.m. to 11:49 a.m., according to reports on the affidavit. Tellez’s phone also showed extended game activity that morning, including use ending at approximately 11:52 a.m. Police said she called 911 about one minute later. Investigators also documented YouTube activity during the overnight hours.
The phone records became important because they could be matched to precise times and compared with what the parents had told detectives. Investigators wrote that the forensic downloads showed information supplied by Tellez and Ingram was “not truthful,” according to reporting on the affidavit. The records did not establish who caused the blunt-force trauma. They instead became part of the police argument that the couple’s description of their supervision and actions before the emergency was unreliable.
By that stage, investigators were working with several different forms of evidence that answered different questions. Medical specialists described the injuries and why they believed those injuries were inflicted rather than accidental. The pediatrician supplied information about the baby’s condition six days earlier. The phones showed what applications were being used at specific times. The parents’ interviews provided accounts detectives could compare with those records. The home itself supplied context about what the adults might have been able to hear or observe.
What the publicly available evidence did not supply was a definitive account of the injury-producing event. News reports describing the affidavit do not identify an eyewitness who saw the trauma occur, and authorities have not publicly announced that either parent confessed to inflicting it. Police nevertheless sought charges against both adults, alleging that each had a duty to care for the infant and that their conduct amounted to culpable negligence.
That distinction may become a major issue as the case moves through court. Prosecutors must prove the charges against each defendant individually. The fact that two caregivers were present does not itself establish every element of a criminal offense, and defense lawyers may challenge investigators’ interpretation of the digital records, statements, medical evidence or assumptions about what each parent knew. At the same time, prosecutors can argue that the evidence should be considered as a combined chronology rather than as isolated pieces.
The months between October and July therefore represent more than an unexplained delay. Investigators continued developing the probable-cause case long after the child’s death, and arrests came only after warrants had been approved. The progression from medical emergency to homicide determination, forensic review, warrant and interstate arrest shows how the case was constructed over time rather than emerging from a single police encounter.
Court proceedings have already changed the defendants’ custody status. Both were initially jailed after their arrests and return to Broward County. On Sept. 4, Circuit Judge Edward H. Merrigan Jr. allowed Tellez, who had turned 21 while incarcerated, to post a $15,000 bond after her mother testified at a hearing. Local reporting said Ingram, 22, remained held without bond at that point.
Those court decisions do not resolve the charges. Tellez and Ingram remain accused of crimes arising from their daughter’s death, and a jury has not decided whether prosecutors can prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt. Nearly a year after the original 911 call, the investigation has produced arrests and a detailed evidentiary timeline, but the central factual question of who directly caused the infant’s fatal injuries remains unresolved in the public record.
Author note: Last updated September 22, 2026.